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 Grade 4 ELA Activities
What's in a Name?
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The study of word history, etymology, helps us to establish important
connections among words. When we understand that a word's origin can affect its spelling or
pronunciation, we gain a better understanding of why English is so varied and unpredictable.
Also, knowing word parts can help us puzzle out other words.
Here's what you need:
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| Crayons or markers |
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| Paper to make a chart |
Here's what you do:
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One way to spark interest in word history and root words is to ask your child to consider
the history of her own name. Help her gather facts such as the original meaning of the name,
a family story that inspired it, or a famous person who had the same name. Using the reference
materials in a library can help you complete the task. Also, the librarian might show you
where to find key information.
To introduce the idea of root words, have your child think about the history of nicknames.
Is a nickname often a variation on a name, such as Michael/Mike or Lucille/Lu? What other words are variations of each other (such as exam/examination, child/children, or term/terminology)?
Keep going...
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If your child is curious about words and follows up on her ideas about words and word parts,
she will grow by leaps and bounds as a reader. You might extend this activity by using the
dictionary for foreign words and phrases that English speakers have borrowed from other languages
(such as déjà vu).
Show your child how to use the dictionary to explore the history of both familiar and new
words. After reading dictionary entries about English words that have French, Spanish, or
other origins, explore those languages further. Look in the library for books about other
languages or cultures that your child has discovered in her search for the etymologies of
English words.
Encourage your child to look at root words and think about how many different combinations
she can build. For example, what prefixes, such as re-, dis-, or pre- does she know? What suffixes, such as -ing, -ed, or –ion, does she use? How does her knowledge
of these word parts help her as a reader and a writer?
Grade 4 ELA Activities
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